KARACHI: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) on Wednesday boycotted attending wards and operation theatres of the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) in protest against non-payment of increase in their stipends and salaries as promised by the management.

It was the second day of their protest. The medics had launched their protest with a demonstration on Tuesday in which they had warned that they would expand the scope of their agitation if the management of the hospital did not pay them the perks and salaries as had been promised to them five months ago.

On Wednesday, upon no response from the administration, they resumed their protest, took out a rally inside the hospital and stopped attending to wards and operation theatres of the facility, witnesses said.

“We are protesting against non-payment of the raise in our monthly stipends, which should have been paid to us for the past five months,” said a protester.

They also took out a rally from CHK’s trauma centre to Dow Medical College and then staged a sit-in in front of the trauma centre.

“Our protest will continue until the new stipend is paid with arrears of the past five months,” said an organiser of the association.

“We are not pleased to create problems for the patients, but this matter is continuously aggravating, forcing us to [opt for protest],” said a doctor.

She said the Sindh government had sanctioned a stipend of Rs65,000 in September last year, yet they were not being paid that by the hospital management.

“We are still being paid the previous stipend of Rs42,500, which is a huge injustice and violation of the government’s order,” she added.

The protesters claimed all other postgraduate doctors working in various hospitals across the province were getting the increased stipend since it was sanctioned in September.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2017